Ezekiel's Adventures in Public School
by Stupidity Vaccine
Summary: After years of begging, Ezekiel's parents are finally letting him attend public school as a junior at Gunther McLean High School. What will happen? Rated T for paranoia, and Total Drama never happened in this universe.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

 **I'm writing my first publicly displayed fanfiction! Hooray!**

 **The synopsis is like most Total Drama high school fics - just plain drama at high school! But instead of, say, Gwen or Mike being the main character, it's EZEKIEL!**

 **That's right! Everyone's favorite homeschooled sixteen-year-old is starting his first day of public schooling at Gunther McLean High School - as a junior! What will happen?!**

 **Oh, and Total Drama never happened in this universe! Chris chose to become a high school principal instead of a reality show host, I guess.**

"Nice talking to you, Sarah!" Sarah's smiling friend called.

"You too, Marissa!" Sarah Towhill waved her friend goodbye. Sarah and her six-year-old son Ezekiel had made a trip to the library, and had run into Sarah's friend Marissa and her two kids. Ezekiel and Marissa's kids had stared wearily at each other for the entirety of their mothers' thirty minute conversation.

"Mommy?"

Sarah looked down to see her child.

"What is it, Ezekiel?"

"Who were those kids?"

"Well, dear, they were Mommy's friend's son and daughter, Joey and Alice."

"Do they go to school?"

Sarah internally rolled her eyes. Ever since Ezekiel had first seen a school on one of his cartoons, he had been extremely curious as to what the wondrous building was like.

"That doesn't matter, sweetie."

"Mommy, why can't I go to school, eh?

"Ezekiel, don't be silly," Sarah smiled, "I've already told you a hundred times. Your father and I just find it safer and more efficient for one-on-one sessions. You don't have to worry about any meanies, and it's much easier to learn fun stuff when there's no one else for the teacher to help."

Ezekiel nodded, signaling that he understood, but Sarah knew her curious son would ask the same question the next day.

Maybe public schooling wouldn't be such a bad idea . . .

Sarah shook the idea out of her head. Yeah, sure. She chuckled. That idea could be revisited in ten years or so . . .

========== TEN YEARS LATER ==========

Ezekiel lay in bed, pleasantly dreaming of the latest adventures of his childhood hero, Superman.

His shelves were lined with pictures of him, his mother, and his father on many family outings. Across from his bed was a TV, and on his dresser sat a Batman bobble head and a picture of baby Zeke with his grandparents.

Suddenly, his alarm clock began buzzing.

BZZT! BZZT! BZZT! BZZT!

Ezekiel's eyes shot open. "Today's the day, eh! Today's the day! I can't believe it's finally here!"

He turned to his nightstand and put on his lucky hat - he never went anywhere without it - and jumped up, making it to the closet in a single leap. He put on his favorite shirt - a T-shirt with the Batman symbol on it - and a pair of jeans, as well as sneakers.

He practically sprinted to the bathroom, where his toothbrush was waiting for him. He poured toothpaste on it, humming the alphabet song as he brushed. When he finished, he spit and rinsed.

After peeing, flossing, and even brushing his hair under his hat, Ezekiel stepped out of the bathroom with his fists triumphantly at his hips, a pose he learned from some superhero, eager to face his first long-awaited day of school.

He had planned that outfit for weeks, and had memorized his schedule from when it came two weeks prior. He was ready.

His father groggily exited his room, which was right next to Ezekiel's.

"Dad!" Ezekiel said happily. "Are you ready, eh?"

"Zeke, it's five in the morning. We don't have to leave until 7:00, eh." Tim Towhill, who shared Ezekiel's accent, chuckled at his son's enthusiasm. He would've sent him back to bed, but he was wide awake, clean, and dressed.

"Oh," Ezekiel sheepishly grinned. "Well, you can go back to bed, eh. I'll make myself breakfast."

"I don't want a repeat of Father's Day 2009 -"

"Do you always have to bring that up whenever I mention that I'm going in the kitchen, eh?" Ezekiel smiled at his dad.

"Whatever," Tim ruffled his son's hair, yawning. "Wake me at 6:30, eh."

Ezekiel walked down to the kitchen and grabbed the last blueberry poptart.

"Well, now what should I do . . ." Ezekiel said to himself, pondering. He then snapped his fingers in realization, something else he picked up from cartoons.

He tip-toed from the kitchen to the front door and left the house.

Taking walks was something Ezekiel had been allowed to do for a long time. The neighborhood they lived in was relatively safe, so he was even allowed to walk by himself - even though it had taken three years for him to convince his mother.

Ezekiel wasn't entirely sure whether or not it was still okay by his parents for him to walk out before the sun even rose, but he figured it was probably alright.

He took in the tranquility of the quiet suburban neighborhood at 5:07 in the morning. The sky, having not yet been blessed by the sun's touch, was a rich dark blue that seemed to be slowly changing to a brighter color. Or maybe that was just Zeke's mind playing tricks on him.

Few birds chirped as Ezekiel walked down the sidewalk, a route he could do in his sleep. He liked taking walks if not for any purpose other than clearing his mind.

Ezekiel thought hard about public school. He had a pretty good idea as to what it would be about, from all the movies and shows about high school he'd watched.

Best case scenario, he would show up at the school and everyone would sing and dance and invite him to a life time of friendship.

Worst case scenario, he would have to choose sides between two rivaling groups, at least until one group's girl fell in love with the other's boy. Then everyone would go to the fair and chang chang changitty chang shoobop their problems away.

Some nagging thoughts in Ezekiel's head wondered if maybe high school wouldn't be exactly like it was in movies, but he shook them away. Sure, maybe all movies and shows weren't true, but how far from the truth could something as simple as high school be?

His thoughts came to a gentle close as he opened his front door, finished with his walk. A quick check of his watch told Ezekiel that it was 5:49.

Ezekiel sighed and turned on the TV.


	2. You're Invited, Dude!

**Oh, before I start this chapter, I just want to let anyone reading this know that you can absolutely expect to see Ridonculous Race characters in this story. Two appear in this chapter, actually.**

 **Happy reading (I hope)!**

"Oh my gosh, eh! I'm just so excited!"

Ezekiel's mother Sarah was forcing him to sit still for some photos for her and her husband to treasure forever, but the excited teen was having trouble not moving.

"Just one more, honey. I promise," Sarah said, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

After a final picture, Ezekiel got into the family's blue van. His mother was not able to accompany him and his father on their quick drive to the school five minutes away - she had work, and was forced to leave at around the same time Zeke had to leave.

"Alright, Ezekiel," Tim said to his eager son, "Do you remember everything I told you about school?"

"Of course, eh!" Ezekiel boasted, "I have the memory of . . . what's the animal with the good memory, eh?"

"You don't remember?"

"Nope!" Ezekiel replied, not catching the irony.

"That would be an elephant, eh," Tim smiled.

"Oh yeah!"

The two sat in silence for a minute, not remembering why remembering which animal had superior memory was so important, and deciding it probably wasn't very important. In no time at all, the two Towhills found themselves in front of Gunther McLean High School.

"I love you, son," Tim smiled. "Go kick public school's ass, eh."

Ezekiel gasped for a second, before shaking it off. He was never one to use such foul language, and neither was his father - but unlike Zeke, his father slipped now and again.

"Oh, sorry."

"Don't apologize, Dad. I'll see you after school, eh!"

The excited teenager jumped out of the van and slowly approached the front doors. He inhaled deeply and pushed the doors open.

He gasped in awe at the sight before him. Kids - kids his age - were casually conversing as they traversed through the hallways, and up and down the stairs.

'Guess this isn't the best case scenario, then,' he thought. 'I wonder which rival group I'll be drafted into!'

He located his locker in a matter of seconds - he had done a lot of preparing. Opening it, he found . . . well, an empty locker.

'So much potential!' he smiled broadly.

All enthusiasm left his body for a second - just a second - as a girl walked up to the locker two lockers down from his, and opened it.

'My first real interaction of my entire high school career!' he thought. 'Alrighty, Zeke, let's do this!'

He closed his locker and turned to face the girl, whose face was blocked by her open locker door.

"Excuse me, eh?"

The girl stopped whatever she was doing and slowly closed her locker.

Ezekiel got a full look at her now. She was pale - very pale - and her hair was white. She had maroon eyes and oddly colored makeup on her face, and her outfit was pretty bizarre as well.

Ezekiel shook off this internal judging. "Hi, I'm Ezekiel, eh!" he greeted, stretching out his hand for a shake like his mother had him to whenever he met one of her coworkers.

The pale girl's eyes didn't leave Ezekiel's face. Ezekiel started sweating. 'Is this how people act when they meet someone new? Man, this IS pretty different from TV!'

Slowly, ever so slowly, the pale girl's gaze drifted from Ezekiel's face to Ezekiel's outstretched hand, which was beginning to waver due to how long it was forced to stretch outwards.

But before she could do anything, a tall, equally pale teen with long black and red hair seemingly appeared from nowhere behind Ezekiel. The pale girl looked at him, and two silently walked away together. Ezekiel watched the two in total confusion, noting how their behavior was different than everyone else's he had seen thus far.

"Excuse me!"

Ezekiel was shocked back into reality by a feminine voice. He looked to see he was standing in front of someone's locker, blocking them.

"Oh, uh, sorry, eh!" he sputtered, moving over to allow the girl to access her locker.

"Hey, don't worry about it," the girl said.

Ezekiel finally looked at her, and was instantly smitten. She was thin, wore a teal sweatshirt and blue short shorts, and had long blonde hair, tied back in a ponytail.

'Oh no! My face is getting red like that time I saw Dad's weird magazine last month!' Ezekiel panicked, starting to walk away.

"Hey, wait!"

The girl had called him back. Did that mean something? No, she must have been talking to someone else.

"You, with the hat!"

A lot of people wore hats.

"And the Batman shirt!"

Fiddlesticks.

"Me, eh?"

The form of feminine perfection caught up to the awkward boy. "Yeah, you! I was just wondering . . . I've never seen you before, right?"

"I don't think so, eh."

"So you're a new student?"

"Uh, yeah, eh."

"Wow!" the girl looked genuinely happy. Ezekiel must have been doing something right. "We haven't had a new student since . . . since Gwen came here in the fifth grade!"

"Who?"

"Oh, duh!" Bridgette said, putting a hand to her forehead. "You don't know her. Where are you from?"

"Uh, home."

"Funny. I meant the school."

"No, eh, I mean I was homeschooled."

"No way," the girl said dismissively, waving her hand. Why didn't she believe him?

An awkward couple of seconds later, the girl's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh, you're serious! I am so sorry!"

Ezekiel shrugged. "It's fine, eh."

"It's just . . . I've never met someone who was homeschooled before! I imagine it must be pretty cool, though - breaks whenever you want, never having to leave your house, being in a comfortable environment . . ."

Ezekiel shrugged again. "Yeah, it was pretty good, I guess, eh."

"BRIDGE!"

Both teens were interrupted by a tall kid with messy blonde hair. He had shorts and a pink t-shirt.

The girl's eyes lit up when she saw him. "GEOFF!"

The toe met half-way and started passionately kissing. Ezekiel had never seen anything like that, turning away in a mixture of shock and disgust.

The kissing quickly stopped, however, as the tall blonde boy, Geoff, turned to Ezekiel. "Who's this guy, Bridge?"

"Oh, that's the new kid. He was homeschooled before he came here!"

Geoff looked impressed. Was Ezekiel going to be popular just because he was homeschooled? "Awesome, man! Nice to meet you! I'm Geoff, and I take it you've met Bridgette."

Geoff held his hand up with the palm facing Ezekiel. 'What is this weird gesture, eh?' Ezekiel thought, checking his mind for any trace of it on TV.

"Dude, don't leave me hanging!"

Out of ideas, Ezekiel just held up his own hand in an attempt to mock Geoff's motion, and Geoff slapped his hand's palm on his. "There you go, brah! And what's your name?"

Recovering from the incident, Ezekiel smiled. "Uh, I'm Ezekiel, eh!"

"Nice to meet you, Ezekiel!" Geoff grinned. "Oh, hey, you're the first person I'm telling this, but I'm throwing a HUGE party Friday - to celebrate the whole new school year and all? It was Bridge's idea. Anyway, the whole grade is invited, so you should totally stop by!"

Ezekiel had been proven right. Ten minutes into school, and people were already begging him to come to parties.

"Uh, sure, eh! Sounds like fun!" Ezekiel grinned.

"Great, man! I'll text you the address."

'Text?'

"Uh, what, eh?"

"I'll text you the address," Geoff repeated. "Whip out your phone, dude, and I'll give you my number."

"Uh, there's a problem with that, eh," Ezekiel said, blushing, while Geoff and Bridgette's faces turned confused. "I, uh, don't have a phone."

Luckily for Ezekiel, Geoff and Bridgette were apparently two of the nicest, most understanding kids in the school. "Bridge, you have a pen?"

Bridgette handed him a pen, and Geoff took out his crumpled-up schedule from his pocket. Ripping off a piece, he wrote an address on it and gave it to Ezekiel.

"As for time, I wrote around six," Geoff let Zeke know, "but if that changes I'll let ya know. Catch ya later, brah!"

"Bye, Ezekiel!"

Ezekiel waved to the two of them, as they walked down the hallway. When they turned the corner, Ezekiel couldn't help but smile widely. Ezekiel Towhill, who had virtually no social experience, had just been invited to a party! Sure, the whole grade was invited, but it was still pretty cool.

Somehow even more excited than earlier, Ezekiel ran to his homeroom class with a big stupid grin on his face.


End file.
